alstry (< 20)

Prepare to be SHOCKED!!!!!!

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America is shutting down. Faster than many think. In the next few weeks prepare to read story after story about this plant or that plant, this business or that business idle workers or shut down completely. It will not be industry specific either.

Obama is talking about creating jobs and improving energy efficiency.......if my math is even close to being right.......there simply is not enough resources to offset the contraction. I hope I am wrong. I encourage all opinions opposite or contrasting mine.

Folks, the conditions going into this reversal is MUCH WORSE than the conditions preceeding the GREAT DEPRESSION. Back in the thirties we had a growing industrial base with cheap labor and very little debt. It is just the oposite today.

Maybe Arnold was right........we are trying to out run an avalanche. Better have fun while you are skiing......and don't look back.

Folks, the conditions going into this reversal is MUCH WORSE than the conditions preceeding the GREAT DEPRESSION. Back in the thirties we had a growing industrial base with cheap labor and very little debt.

Back then, there was also no social safety net, no insurance on banks, virtually no regulation on the stock market. This is big, but we're not really in the same place.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Novellus Systems Inc. on Tuesday said it plans to cut 10% of its workforce and warned that its results for the current quarter will be "below the low end" of its outlook due to weakening demand.

Alstry is right, since printing money is basically the only way out, for this so-called insurance, how much is that really going to save the economy? In fact, the Debt (Public and Private) to GDP ratio is actually much worse, than before the Great Depression.

The news comes just one day after the Governor announced that he is suspending all business with Bank of America until the bank would reassure credit to Chicago’s Republic Windows & Doors factory in a bold show of support by Blagojevich for the laid off employees of the company.

This is MUCH WORSE than going into The Great Depression. Our grandparents(for many of us) lived during that period. Very few had any exposure to the stock market and consumer debt was very limited. Today, the consumer is 2/3 of the economy and the consumer is dying.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- We are a country of spenders who must learn the hard way to practice what our grandparents have always known: A penny saved is a penny earned.Consider that about 43% of Americans spend more than they earn, according to estimates from the federal government, and the average household carries some $8,000 to $10,000 in credit-card debt. To make matters worse, the average American no longer saves money. That's tumbled from a 10.8% average savings rate in 1984 into negative territory today. It's no wonder that many of us have been living way above our means for some time. But that is getting harder and harder to do. Available credit for people to finance their lifestyles has shrunk if not dried up altogether and many Americans are standing by in shock watching their mortgage payments surge while the value of their 401(k)s drop.

We are about to learn just how dependent our economy was on easy credit....my guess is that it is much more than people think.

I still don't think we're looking at another Great Depression, however I'll be bracing myself for a steady stream of Alstry layoff articles to start the new year. This is the time of year when companies shed jobs, so I expect you'll have lots of fodder to write about.

Again, no Depression, but 9-10% unemployment is certainly in play come 2009.